Voice of the people (letter).

Boxing A Blight

July 12, 1997|By Bill Corcoran.

CHICAGO — Boxing is the only sport, if you can even call it a sport, where the purpose is to knock your opponent senseless. No other sport is based on trying to leave your opponent stretched out on the canvas, in a comatose state.

The Tribune editorial (July 1) correctly called professional boxing "a moral blight that destroys minds and bodies while generating vast wealth for the unsavory characters who control the business."

If anyone has any doubts what repeated blows to the head can do to a person, all they have to do is listen to former professional fighters speak. Many of them slur their words, talk incoherently and are known as punch-drunk.

The latest ear-biting incident involving Mike Tyson only serves to remind everyone that professional boxing is a sport that attracts unsportsmanlike people--boxers and promoters.